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Lampedusa dead honoured as survivors detained

Coffins of children are pictured among coffins of victims in an hangar of Lampedusa airport on October 5, 2013. AFP/ALBERTO PIZZOLI

Update: This story has been edited to add that the victims of the Lampedusa ship wreck will not receive posthumous citizenship. They will be honoured with a state funeral.

Hundreds of asylum seekers killed in the Lampedusa ship wreck will receive state honours, but Italians online are focusing on the survivors, who face deportation and fines.

At a conference at Siena University on Friday, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta reportedly said of the victims, "from today they are Italian citizens".

The victims will not receive citizenship, though Letta said at a press conference Wednesday that they will have a state funeral.

The asylum seekers were killed after a smugglers boat thought to be carrying more than 500 people capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa, leaving at least 250 dead. Most of the passengers on the boat were reportedly Eritrean asylum seekers.

Many took Letta's reported comments on citizenship literally, comparing his honouring of the dead to the treatment of the survivors.

#BossiFini trended in Italy, as netizens discussed the law that criminalises immigration to Italy without legal employment. Under the Bossi-Fini law, the shipwreck survivors will be deported and fined $6,800 (€5,000). The prosecutor in the Lampedusa case said, "It is our duty to charge them. We cannot avoid the law". Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge has called for a change to Italian immigration policy.

Translation: "[Prime Minister] Letta: 'The victims of Lampedusa today are Italian citizens.' The point? If you die you get citizenship? Better to be silent than to say stupid things".

In the wake of the tragedy, a change.org petition was launched, which calls for the Nobel Peace Prize to be given to the citizens of Lampedusa.

Lampedusa's citizens have demonstrated, year after year, debarkation after debarkation, shipwreck after shipwreck, that they are generous, brave and eminently Human. Today, thanks to the wretched Italian Law, they even risk to be put under investigation by the authorities, when they help people in immediate life-threatening danger.change.org

Translation: "Our politicians should learn from the citizens of Lampedusa the meaning of the word solidarity".

Kyenge has called for EU-wide action in preventing similar tragedies in the future. On Tuesday, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom announced a proposal to increase search and rescue patrols, including intercepting migrant boats, in the Mediterranean.